The project is advancing the Salamanca mine development whilst uranium demand is on the rise.
Berkeley Energia Plc today released a quarterly report that checks off the mine developer’s progress as it continues to build the Salamanca uranium mine in Spain.
The company explained that all infrastructure work is on track for completion as planned, the necessary land acquisition process is almost complete, and major equipment has been ordered and is being fabricated by industry experts.
It also highlighted that in the quarter Berkeley entered into an agreement with a Glencore subsidiary to access reagent, between 2018 to 2021, at a price that’s substantially below the level estimated in the project definitive feasibility study.
Significantly, the company noted that sentiment is ‘beginning to turn’ in the uranium market. Spot pricing has held strong since the December 2016 rally, Berkeley said. It highlighted that that US utilities have begun to re-contract uranium supply, and in Japan there have been 25 reactor restart applications of which five have now been approved.
Berkeley Energia receiving growing interest for utilities
Paul Atherley, managing director, said that the company is receiving growing interest for utilities from US, Asian, European and African.
“The Salamanca mine is being developed to the highest international standards and we are extremely proud of the investment which will create 450 jobs and a further 2,000 indirect jobs across a region badly hit by long term unemployment, especially amongst its youth,” Atherley said.
“We are very encouraged by the strong and growing support among our stakeholders, from the EU down to the local community, as evidenced by the rising number of job applications and the oversubscribed training courses.
“To date the company has provided skills training for over 120 local people and has received job applications from over 25% of the residents of the local villages.
“The Salamanca mine is being welcomed by EURATOM as an important contributor to the European Union’s low cost, clean energy security.”
Source: proactiveinvestors